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Gunning For the Last Laugh

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[BOLD {KIRK IN 'THE FESTIVAL OF LIVING ART'}] ''I love that episode.... It didn't look like [MDASH] I'm trying to think of a polite way to diss the WB [MDASH] shoddy production values''

5. Season 2's ''A-Tisket, A-Tasket''
It's the one where... Kirk wins the basket Sookie (Melissa McCarthy) made for Jackson (Jackson Douglas) at the annual Stars Hollow Picnic Basket Auction. ''We shot it when I was still just a guest star, going from episode to episode. It was the first time they gave Kirk any sort of backstory. Jackson comes to me, and we have a scene on a park bench that for whatever reason is still just about my favorite scene I've ever done on the show. I say [to him], 'Look, you don't understand, some of us don't have girlfriends to make baskets for them, and I grew up in a house with 12 brothers and sisters and nobody ever made me a basket.' I end up selling him back the basket for like $250, and ask him for two forms of ID for a check. It's funny, but it's kinda sad, too.''

4. Season 4's ''Raincoats and Recipes''
It's the one where... Kirk runs naked through Luke and Lorelei's kiss outside the newly opened Dragonfly Inn. ''Everybody remembers the maniacal yelling, but I prefer the earlier scene that sets it up. I go and talk to Luke and tell him I have these night terrors. 'I'm used to it now, but I don't want to end up ninja-kicking or strangling Lulu [Rini Bell] in her sleep.' It's just very matter-of-fact.'' Uh-huh, but back to the nudity. ''That pillow really is all I got. I remember after the first take, walking by [Graham and Patterson]. They were kinda laughing, kinda uncomfortable. I said, 'Was I too big?' I think that broke the tension a little bit.''

3. Season 5's ''Jews and Chinese Food''
It's the one where... Kirk plays Tevia in the elementary school's production of Fiddler on the Roof. ''Here's the backstory: Before Gilmore Girls even started, [executive producers Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino] had gone to see a friend's young child in a production of Fiddler on the Roof, and Tevia was played by an enormous black man, who was the music director of the school. They said it was one of the most bizarre things they've ever seen, and they knew they had to recreate it. But for years they couldn't get the rights [to Fiddler]. We used the same backstory: The role's too big, none of the kids can do it, and so we needed an adult. It's hysterical because Kirk is singing ''Do You Love Me?'' to an 8-year-old girl, but at the same time, Luke and Lorelei are listening and having a moment. To me, that makes for good TV: when you can simultaneously contrast something totally absurd with something kinda dramatic and touching.''

2. Season 3's ''A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving''
It's the one where... Kirk gets a cat that he names Kirk. ''This is the other episode fans say is their favorite. What I really like about it is that all the action takes place offscreen, which to me is always funnier. The last scene, where Kirk is bandaged and describing how Cat Kirk is terrorizing him, is the only time in the whole seven years of doing the show that I can remember doing a take, and having Dan Palladino say, 'Sean, that was a little too big. Can you bring it down a little bit?'''

1. Season 4's ''The Festival of Living Art''
It's the one where... Stars Hollow hosts a pose-as-famed-artwork festival, and Kirk goes ''Method'' while playing Jesus in Da Vinci's ''The Last Supper.'' ''I love that episode because everything works. Everything that happens is hilarious. It was also the number-one most grueling episode to shoot for me. The makeup artists won an Emmy for that show [the only one Gilmore Girls ever won], which they richly deserved. It looked fantastic. It didn't look like — I'm trying to think of a polite way to diss the WB — shoddy production values. Actually, there is a great still photo from that episode, where it looks like a nice little tableau of 'The Last Supper,' but it's all people and I'm in the middle as Jesus. I had a bunch of copies framed and gave them to my family members for Christmas that year.''